


To make a God

by Anxietymoss284566428348



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Gods (Percy Jackson), Atlantis, Gen, How Do I Tag, Merpeople, Politics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:42:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27724321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anxietymoss284566428348/pseuds/Anxietymoss284566428348
Summary: Percy Jackson is somehow transported to a universe where the gods have all died out centuries ago. Dropped conveniently near Atlantis, Percy is forced to decide between trying to get back home, and helping out the citizens of Atlantis who are suffering under a tyrannical king.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

Deep in a cave many leagues below the ocean surface in a fortress of bones, two sisters sat waiting. It had been many years since the bones had been this talkative, whispering to each other secrets that no mortal could comprehend without losing their sanity. The sisters were an exception, as their sanity had fallen with Atlantis under the ocean all those years ago. Living so long, surrounded by the insanity that were the bones, their bodies had changed until they resembled the chaos within their heads. Their eyes turned milky white and their tails which had once been so elegant and colorful were now malformed and dull. But still the bones talked.

  
Far above the cave, but still under the ocean surface, sat a king. You wouldn’t know he was a king by looking at him. He had no throne of jewels to sit on, no fine robes to wear, and no crown upon his greasy head. What he did have was tattered rags and manacles. The only clue to his royal blood was the air of dignity surrounding him, for he had done the best he could for his people. He and his forefathers had built up this city from the ruins that had laid crumbling and unnoticed deep below the water’s surface. They had created a prosperous kingdom where once there was nothing. Although he was to be executed as soon as the sun’s rays pierced through the depths, his only wish was that someone would manage what he could not. 

  
High in a tower a tyrant king sat contemplating tyrant deeds, watching his troops march through the city that he was proud to call his own. This coup had been many decades in planning, many decades of watching a fool sit on his rightful throne, eating the delicacies and spending the gold that should have been his to spend. But no more. The tyrant heard whispers from deep in the trenches of the open ocean of a prophecy. But only whispers. Those whispers were enough to push his paranoia over the brink and he became determined to hunt down every being who could bring about his downfall.

  
He sent out scouts to every corner of the kingdom and each returned with empty hands, he placed his people in every position of authority and gave them orders to look out for anyone who matched the vague description given in the prophecy. So obsessed with extinguishing the threat to his power, the tyrant king ignored his responsibilities and let crime prosper and families live in fear. Atlantis was once a shining beacon of glory and peace in the merworld, but over the course of a hundred years the kingdom reflected the sickness that was festering within. The people were going hungry as the king feasted in his lavishly decorated palace and the citizens of Atlantis were losing hope until one day a boy fell. 

  
He fell from above, and as he breathed his last breath and felt the briny sea water burn his throat, it seemed like the ocean surrounded him in comfort and apology. He didn’t feel his heart stop beating, his legs fuse together to form a tail, or his body hit the sandy ground. He didn’t feel his lungs collapse under the pressure or a long tentacle wrap around his body and drag him to a cave.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dialogue* - dialogue in a language Percy doesn't really understand.

When Percy Jackson opened his eyes, it wasn’t to the ceiling of Cabin 3, or the ceiling of his room in his Mom’s and Paul’s apartment. It was to two ginormous eyes staring at him. 

Well. That was weird. 

Percy went to sit up, but as soon as he moved the owner of those eyes let out a burst of pitch-black ink and disappeared behind a rock. As its tentacles swirled around it protectively it let out a noise that reminded Percy of boats creaking in the water, though maybe calling it a noise was wrong as Percy could feel it more than he could hear it. It vibrated and echoed off of the cave walls until it seemed to surround him. 

Those giant eyes fixed on him once more, and in the dim light of the cave they seemed as dark as the void. The same noise came again, but this time as Percy focused, he realized he could understand it slightly. He couldn’t hear words, exactly, just a feeling of curiosity and surprise. 

Cautiously sitting up slowly, Percy moved to stand and promptly fell over. The creature startled once more and let out a sound of concern.

“I’m okay", Percy said before he had a chance to wonder why he was reassuring this creature that now it had moved from behind the rock looked to be about 20 feet in length with long tentacles that started to reach for him. It had huge dark eyes that seemed to be entirely black, and long hair that he couldn’t tell the colour of in this light. Its skin was dark with some kind of hexagonal pattern on it that shimmered lightly and continued on to its tentacles. Its eyes were now looking at him with concern and Percy got the feeling that it was quite young.

Looking down, he was shocked to realize that he didn’t have legs anymore. Instead, he had a long mottled gray tail that split into two flippers at the end. As he moved his hands to feel his tail, he noticed that his fingers were longer and webbed and were the same gray color as his tail. Fully panicking now, he anxiously attempted to get up to find a mirror or anything that he could see his reflection in, only to once again fall over. Looked like he would have to get used to having a tail instead of legs. His ability to breathe underwater wasn’t as concerning as he was used to being able to do that. He absently wondered if he would still be able to manipulate water and talk to sea creatures but put it out of his mind as it didn’t really matter right now seeing as he was stuck in a cave in gods know where with what appeared to be a giant squid mermaid. 

“Can... Can you understand me?”

*Yes*

“Okay, okay. I'm Percy, do you have a name?”

This time, instead of getting an answer that he could understand, he got a series of sounds that he could never hope to emulate. Well then, looked like he had to get creative. 

“Uh, is it okay if I can give you a nickname?”

*Yes*, though they seemed excited and a little amused.

“Cool. Are you a girl or a boy?”

*I’m a squid*

Helpful. 

“What about.... Tiny?”

There was a moment of silence as the merperson seemed to turn the idea over in their head.

*Small?* 

The genuine confusion in their voice as they looked down at their long tentacles and large body and then back at Percy’s much smaller tail and torso almost led Percy to reconsider, but at that point it had stuck for him. 

“Yeah, I think it suits you!”

*Doubt*

Not really wanting more attention to be put on his admittedly pretty awful naming skills, he quickly changed the subject.

“Do you know where we are?”

*Yes. Atlantis*

“Wait? Atlantis Atlantis? Awesome! My dad lives there!”

*Father?*

“Yeah! Poseidon!”

*Who?*

“You know, the God of the ocean? Big guy with a trident? Likes Hawaiian shirts?”

*Don’t know. No gods*

“No gods?”

*No gods*

No gods. What could they mean no gods? Granted, he didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, and he did have the whole tail thing going on, but that couldn’t have changed so much. Unless...

Hesitantly, as he was unsure if he wanted to know, he asked “Do you know what happened to them?”

*Died*

Oh. Fuck. If the gods were dead, how long had he been unconscious and what else had changed? Despite being the son of Poseidon, he had never transformed into a merman before, and while they did exist, he never spent enough time underwater to learn the culture, so he had no idea how hard it would be to live in Atlantis. Numbly, he sat back down on the surprisingly soft seaweed covered rock that made up his bed. Swishing his tail idly back and forth in the water, he debated what he should do next. While going to Atlantis seemed daunting, he really didn’t want to spend the foreseeable future in this cave with Tiny, as nice as they seemed. So wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn’t notice Tiny leave the cave after watching him with thoughtful eyes and was shocked when he looked up to discover that he was alone in the cave. 

Taking advantage of the solitude, Percy finally gave in to his urge to snoop around. After a few minutes cursing out his tail, he finally figured out the weird worm like movement he needed to move around as gracefully as he could manage. His flippers at the end of his tail kept confusing him because he was tempted to just use them as feet, but every attempt to do so just ended up with him falling over. Shaking off the sand from his last meeting with the floor, he began to poke around. The cave was surprisingly bright, and the rock that he had used as a bed seemed to be a recent addition as he could see a nest in one corner of the cave. The nest was providing most of the light in the cave, as it was surrounded by very smooth, carefully polished rocks that glowed slightly. These same rocks were positioned strategically around the cave and created a dim lighting, but enough to see in. There wasn’t much in the way of personal objects in the cave, at least not that he could see, the cave mainly seemed like a safe place to sleep and that’s all. Approaching the entrance of the cave, Percy was slightly disappointed to see just the walls of a trench and a few fish swimming around. Tiny had said they were in Atlantis, so he was kinda expecting to see a majestic city with merpeople swimming about not the grungy stone trench he was currently at the bottom of.   
\------------------------------------------------------

When the man, Percy he said he was, had sat down like that and shown no indication of getting up, Tiny had taken advantage of the opportunity to go get food. They didn’t really know what the merman would eat, as from what they could tell he was a seal merman, and they were sure that a giant squid diet was a lot different. Maybe fish. Everyone liked fish. Maybe Diver would know, he did spend time with the Atlanteans in Emporía, helping the merchants transport their goods as not many would dare mess with a whale shark. That decided, they changed course to where they knew their friend would be at this time. As far as they knew, he didn’t have any deliveries today, and preferred the warmer waters near the coast when he didn’t have to endure the far chillier ones near the trench that Tiny called home. 

Sure enough, they found the whale shark where they expected them to be also enjoying a meal. Letting out a happy greeting as they approached, they grinned as they heard Diver return it. Creature speak was similar enough to the language of the Vathýs that they could mostly communicate with ease. Wrapping their tentacles and arms around Diver in a hug, they laughed as he dove down deep and knocked the air out of them. Diver always did that as a greeting, and Tiny loved the exhilarating freedom of being weightless for a few seconds.

“What brings you over here Little One?” Diver asked as soon as they stopped diving.

Tiny scowled slightly, Diver had known them since they were a juvenile of barely five feet in length, and the name had unfortunately stuck despite Tiny now being a respectable 23 feet. They had been dismayed when Percy had declared Tiny to be their nickname as they were hoping to make at least one friend who didn’t call them some variation of small. Diver himself was only a few feet larger than they were, and he was a fully grown whale shark who had been around for centuries.

When Tiny didn’t immediately respond, Diver made a quiet noise of amusement. His friend had always been easily distracted, but they would remember why in a minute. Sure enough, not five seconds after he had that thought, Tiny asked their question. 

“What do seal merpeople eat?” 

Slightly taken aback by the random question, Diver took a moment to think, opening his large mouth and taking in a mouthful of fish and sea water as he did so. Seal merpeople were rare around here as most chose not to come to Atlantis, or if they did, they lived on the outskirts of the kingdom. His Little One did have a habit of attempting to befriend anything and everything, though their methods didn’t always have the best of luck, so it was possible that they had made a friend in a seal merperson. 

“Mainly fish, though it depends on the type of seal. Why? Did you make a friend Little One?” he responded after a minute.

Tiny was practically vibrating with excitement at this point, their tentacles were moving as fast as their words.

“I did!” they exclaimed, “He said his name is Percy, but that’s such a simple name! And he gave me a name, its only fair I give him one.”

Diver chuckled at hearing the happiness in their voice. Most Vathýs were antisocial and preferred the solitude of the areas outside Atlantis, but his friend never really fit into that box.

“Where's he from?” he asked

Tiny paused their celebration for a minute to think. “I don’t think he said. But I saw him fall into my trench from the surface.”

“From the surface??” Diver asked shocked. That had never happened before. There were stories told about how the first merpeople were created from humans that fell into the sea and drowned, but he had never believed the tales. As old as he was, those stories, along with the stories of the gods before they died out, were centuries older. 

“Yes! He had legs and everything, well, for a bit. I’ve never seen that happen before.”

“Neither have I”, mused Diver, his brain thinking quickly. While it was true that he was essentially just a delivery shark for the merchant district, they were very gossipy and didn’t realize he could understand Greek, so rarely censored what they said around him. He, along with most of his brethren and the Vathýs had heard of a prophecy told about someone who fell from the surface and brought Atlantis back to the state it was 100 years ago, but he didn’t concern himself with the affairs of the merpeople, so had paid little attention. And Little One was young enough that they have only ever known Atlantis as it is under King Philokrates, and even if they did, they were enough of an outsider to Atlantis not to care.

Noticing that Tiny was wincing at the bright light even as they covered their eyes with their long hair, Diver quickly suggested that they go back to finding fish for their new friend and continued on musing after his young friend left him.  
\-----------------------------------------

Tiny left Diver, having no idea of the events that their casual remark started, excited to get back to their new friend. At least, they hoped that Percy would be their friend. As much as they tried, Tiny has never been great at making friends. It was rare to find someone who could get past the language gap, like Percy seemed to although he only seemed to understand the simplest version of what Tiny wanted to say, but even if you got past that, Vathýs were meant to be solitary, and as much as Tiny longed for connection, they just had no idea how to act around others.

By the time they returned to the cave they affectionately called home, their tentacles were laden with a few fish, and some rocks that they thought could be very pretty with a bit of ink and polish. They were cheerfully entering the cave and letting out an inquiring noise and didn’t notice anything was wrong until they didn’t get a noise back. The cave was empty. Their new friend was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Percy has a leopard seal tail. Seals symbolize intuition, protection, and creativity. Tiny is a giant squid merperson, and Diver is just an ordinary whale shark.  
> The Vathýs are a race of deep sea merpeople, they are usually solitary, and their language sounds like a mix of whale song and boats creaking.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy goes exploring and finds some things out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! I love reading your comments :)

Percy hadn’t meant to wander off so far, but when Tiny hadn’t immediately returned and he had fully explored the surrounding area, he had decided to go a little farther past the trench. He had been swimming now for a good ten minutes, and while he wasn’t completely lost as he sort of knew the direction that he came from, he had no idea where he was or where he was going. He had considered asking the fish that passed him by for directions, but as he didn’t have a destination in mind, it didn’t seem worth it. He was so caught up with his pondering that he almost didn’t notice the town coming up in the distance.

Whatever Percy had expected Atlantis to look like, this wasn’t it. He had visited his father’s palace in Atlantis once before but seeing as the gods had been dead for a while, he hadn’t really expected it to look the same. Still, all the stories he had heard of Atlantis led him to expect a shining city made of pearl and alabaster that was full of prosperous and content people. That was definitely not what he saw before him.

This town was very obviously a sick shadow of its former glory. The buildings were crumbling and grungy, though he could see that they had once been beautiful. The few merpeople he could see working in the fields were malnourished and their tales were faded. As he watched, several merpeople rode by on hippocampi armed with sharp barbed spears and wearing shining metal armor. They looked to be the healthiest people living there, but they felt off, even more so than the town. Their skin was a sickly looking greyish green and as one of them smiled cruelly, Percy caught a glimpse of needlelike teeth. Their grating voices carried easily over the current, though he had a hard time figuring out what they were saying. The meaning behind the words though was very clear as they turned their jeering and mockery to a young boy struggling under the heavy weight of a large woven bag that he was carrying over his shoulder. Even from this distance, Percy could see his ribs and tailbones sticking out under the boy’s skin. The boy faltered and swung the bag down to drag it along the sandy ocean floor, but that reprieve didn’t last long as the jeering soldiers were quick to jab at him with the butt end of their spears until he picked up the bag once more and swam a shaky line upwards to what looked like a large industrial building. A shudder went over him as one of the soldiers sharply turned his head to look in his direction. He quickly ducked down behind a large rock and as much as he wanted to rush in, a voice in the back of his mind which sounded remarkably like Annabeth chided him for acting before he had all the information. After a minute, he dared to peek his head out again and observed the building that the boy had entered. Perhaps it had once been a magnificent building of shining alabaster and coral, now though, it was a crumbling calcified wreck that struggled to stand its ground against the weak ocean current. Despite how much he wanted to intervene, he decided to go back to Tiny’s cave and to return to the village later when he could help.

Starting to swim back in what he hoped was the right direction, he was relieved to see the beginning of the trench not 30 minutes of swimming later. That relief quickly dissipated when he heard a heartbreaking noise. There were no words associated with the call, but Percy got a strong sense of loss and new instinctually that it was coming from Tiny. Growing concerned, he started swimming faster and arrived at the cave to see Tiny curled up and, well, sulking. Percy really didn’t have another way to describe how the giant merperson was acting. They were curled up, hugging their tentacles to their chest occasionally letting out the same soulful noise.

“Tiny?” Percy hesitantly asked.

Immediately the noise stopped and Tiny turned large sorrowful eyes on him. The sudden silence grew intensely, and Percy awkwardly shifted.

“Is, is everything okay?” It was strange that he felt so protective and invested in the wellbeing of this 30 ft being, but Percy couldn’t help but feel that Tiny was very young. He was strongly reminded of his little sister, and his heart panged at the reminder. He had almost forgotten during his exploration that he was effectively stuck here. He may never see his family again.

Percy was torn from his thoughts buy a tentacle grabbing him and pulling him roughly into a very strong hug. Stilling his immediate reaction to pull out a weapon, he patted the bit of Tinys arm that he could reach, hoping to provide at least a little comfort. He stayed like that, providing comfort, until Tiny’s breathing calmed down and the grip around him relaxed a little. Breaking the comfortable silence, Percy once again asked what had happened. This time he got an answer, but it was so quiet and deep that he had to strain to hear it.

“You were gone. I got back. And you weren't here. I thought you left and wouldn’t come back.”

Percy’s heart broke. He had only known Tiny for a day really, but they were so adorable and sweet in their actions that he was quickly won over. He was still surprised at the extent of his emotions, but he pushed it aside so he could focus on the immediate problem.

“I’m so sorry Tiny. I didn’t mean to be gone for so long. I just went exploring and uh, I got kinda lost.” Percy said sheepishly. As he kept talking, Tiny’s eyes hesitantly brightened and their face became more and more hopeful, “I didn’t leave you, and I'll let you know if I leave to explore again. I want to be your friend, I really do”

“Friend?”

“Yes, friend.”

A low thrumming noise of joy filled the cave, and Percy smiled. Tiny seemed to realize that their tentacles were still trapping Percy, and they quickly untangled them to let him go. A sudden spurt of energy had them fully uncurling and heading to a shelf on the other side of the cave. Curious, Percy also got up and follows them. In a seaweed basket on the shelf were several large fish.

“For me?” Percy asked to make sure. He hoped it wasn’t all for him, he was definitely not going to be able to eat all of it and he wasn’t sure how long it’d last since there wasn’t really a fridge in the cave.

“Yes, food. Wasn’t sure what you eat, asked Diver and he didn’t really know either. So, fish.”

Absently, Percy noticed that either he was understanding more of Tiny’s speech or they were just talking more, but there was a definite difference compared to their conversation earlier. Amusedly watching Tiny bustle around the cave tidying up things that were already tidy and letting out a short noise of happiness every so often. A grumble of his stomach pulled him from his observations and once again pushed his thoughts to the side as he settled down to eat.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, so feedback is appreciated!


End file.
